Microsoft coverage: tell us what you want

What would you like to see more or less of in our Microsoft coverage? Drop …

You've likely noticed that our coverage of Microsoft (non-gaming) has picked up quite a bit over the past year, thanks in large part to contributions from Peter Bright who has joined Emil Protalinski on One Microsoft Way. Peter and I were recently discussing future projects, and we both thought it would be a great idea to solicit from you, dear reader, thoughts on what we should and should not be covering in the world of Microsoft.

Microsoft is a massive company with more products than 99.9 percent of the population can name. Despite so many products, it's often hard to determine what is best to cover. Many, many moons ago we sought to cover nearly all of the daily "news," but it was frankly quite boring (and you told us as much, in both feedback and traffic). Patch Tuesday is the most uninteresting (and predictable!) "news" on earth, but some people would argue that it's essential information. Point updates and patches to enterprise products can be pretty snoretastic as well. But readers seemed to respond well to big releases, consumer product news, and strategy/direction analysis.

When thinking about what you'd like to see us cover, keep in mind that there are really two kinds of things we do here at Ars: there's the daily news mill, and then there are long-form features. We're looking for suggestions on both. For those of you who read other tech sites that address Microsoft, it would be fantastic if you linked to stories you wished we covered but didn't. It's one thing to say you want more enterprise news. It's quite another to link some examples of what you think counts as worthwhile examples of enterprise coverage.

As usual, Peter and I will be in the discussion section, so don't hesitate to ask questions if you've got them.

217 Reader Comments

From the way people answered the survey (at least according to the comments from the survey article) they want Microsoft articles in a 1:1 ratio, word for word, pro/con to pro/con per every Apple related article.

On a more serious note: I like being kept up to date on patches, new MS products and anything interesting coming out of their labs. I have no interest in corporate computing since I left that world moons ago. I have doubts that the average Ars reader is involved in corporate computing anyway (since it appears to have a more mainstream userbase than when it started). However It would be nice to see some technical articles on MS tech like the NTFS tech breakdown of years ago. That's always interesting and not something I find elsewhere (especially since magazines like Byte are gone now).

I believe that coverage of a company's products and its actions should be done relative to the relevance (or potential relevance) of those products and actions. I see plenty of people who complain about "too much Apple coverage", but their products, whether you like them or not, are very relevant to the "digital landscape" of the current day.

Microsoft remains relevant in a lot of markets. Some of their products are not as exciting for most readers (Office), or some are established and go through potentially important iterations (Windows XP/7/8/etc). Sometimes their products just don't do particularly well (Zune), or fall behind (phones). In other avenues they have products that have potential ("Windows Phone 7", or the killed-off Courier project).Some stories are of most interest to developers (e.g. Silverlight, etc.)

These kinds of things can be said of a lot of large companies, though Microsoft is one of the unique cases which is interesting to analyze, because they have been dominant for so long, but are now having a hard time adjusting to their competitors in the modern computing marketplace.

So, I feel I've seen pretty good MS coverage, and the same frequency should continue.

- Cloud strategy and tech (More info on InTune for example)- Lesser-known consumer tech of note (MediaCenter, WHS)- Developer tools and news- Some level of Enterprise technology discussion. SQL,Exchange, System Center are important. Dynamics, maybe not so much so. Drawing the line is hard, but cutting it out entirely would be a disservice.

Based on that list, I'd say you guys have been doing pretty good the last year from my perspective. I'm glad Peter is on board too, his contributions on the development side have been welcome. Your coverage is very even-handed as well. While it's impossible to avoid trolls in a Microsoft tech forum, your posts don't leave much room for them latch on and have any credibility, which is worthy of an award.

EDIT: Add Virtualization to that list. Of all the topics Ars covers, this area is pretty light, surprisingly so. Between App Virt, Hypervisor, virtualization management, VDI...there's is very little coverage there, and that is about as hot as it gets in the Enterprise world right now. Also, I'll second the comment above that additional coverage of the stuff MS Research is doing would be nice. The stuff you guys do cover is always fascinating and fun, and I bet there is more out there to talk about if you looked more...

I have doubts that the average Ars reader is involved in corporate computing anyway (since it appears to have a more mainstream userbase than when it started).

Actually, we index higher for IT than probably any other publication than you can think of, including ComputerWorld, etc..

Perhaps than you can think of. I do find that somewhat surprising judging by article comments I read but I don't have your stats so I yield. In any case corporate computing articles seem a poor fit on Ars IMHO.

I am in charge of IT (very part-time) in the small organisation I am working for ( 20 desktops and laptops running XP plus a server running Windows SBS 2008 + Exchange). As I do not have time to browse a lot of IT sites, what I am interested in Ars regarding Microsoft coverage is:

- Important security issues;- Evolutions regarding OSes and office software, but not the day to day stuff.

For my personal IT culture, I enjoy articles about strategic evolutions of Microsoft as a business.

I'd like to expand upon this suggestion. Lately, I've felt that many article headlines are purposefully sensational. (This applies to Microsoft, Apple and other articles---happy to supply links to support this.)

I'd rather see more of the 'old fashioned' objective Ars reporting without so much flame bait.

I actually think you've been doing great recently. As long as I see coverage of stuff like Windows Phone 7 while actually demonstrating real knowledge of Windows Mobile, or Wave 4 while demonstrating real knowledge of existing Windows Live, or IE9 while knowing the real strengths and weaknesses of IE8.. I'm good. Basically, write what you know about and I won't care about the volume.

I'm particularly interested in corporate IT topics, I work for an OEM and frankly I often hear about MS decisions here before they filter through internally.While other platforms are interesting and even exciting it's Windows and MS that dominate my day to day experience of computing and the Ars articles have helped me stay ahead of the game.

The articles on O/S transitions and the unending XP end-of-support saga have been particularly useful to me. What I like most about the articles is that they act as a sort of informed digest of MS news allowing me to catch up without having to stay on top of what is almost a torrent of updates.

It does seem like the MS coverage has expanded recently (could just be perception though): more info on WinPhone7, Azure, the "Microsoft-Spurned Researcher Collective " article, etc.

Maybe more coverage of their cloud/mesh services and how they interact (or how to tell them apart), networking, storage, etc., and maybe with some more consumer-oriented info (versus corporate IT).

One thing I want to learn about is Sharepoint and its uses on the consumer end in terms of home networking. I can (and should) do some web research. And probably will. But it's nice to get Ars' take on things, too. I usually get more usable information from Ars' articles than from other sites.

I love the following: - News on Developer Tools - News on new features in popular MS products (Office, Win7, Server, etc) - Detailed investigations into how common pieces of Windows work. As several mentioned the NTFS article was amazing. - Brief discussions of patches and vulnerabilities. It's helpful to at least get a basic overview of the stuff I'm installing on my system. It's also very nice to know common attack vectors that my machine is vulnerable to so that I can avoid them. - News on major business decissions. Such as the XP downgrade extension. - Previews of upcoming products (Windows Phone 7, etc)

The Microsoft coverage has gotten better and better since I've started reading Ars. Keep it up guys!

I'd like to know what Gates is up to lately, he seems to be pretty reclusive with regards to media exposure anymore.

As for Microsoft coverage, it'd be nice to get updates on updates (harhar) for their major product lines, especially the non-Office products (hardware and software), perhaps more from a corporate IT side vs a home side.

Obviously it isn't as bang-zoom exciting as Apple product launches and goof ups, but Microsoft products also much more pervasive in technology than Apple could ever hope to be. But, just because they aren't glamorous, doesn't mean interesting articles about them can't be written.

I just want good informative articles that spend more time on details then complaining.

Case in point:the windows 7 review spent an entire page complaining about problems in windows 7, but said absolutely nothing about paint's new abilities and even went as far as to suggest there was nothing different. there's a long section about searching and it's problems, but zero mention of the drop down box with search terms

I want to read info about the product, not have the author cherry pick what he thinks is important and just gloss over other parts

Hey, Captain whatever, perhaps you haven't been following the complete fiascos in the mobile market, which is clearly the future. Yes, MS will continue to make lots of money for the time being, largely on the backs of all those IT clowns who have their heads in the sand, and are trying to protect their own jobs and empires, but the handwriting is on the wall. In 10 years, MS will be a mere shell of its former self.

I have doubts that the average Ars reader is involved in corporate computing anyway (since it appears to have a more mainstream userbase than when it started).

Actually, we index higher for IT than probably any other publication than you can think of, including ComputerWorld, etc..

Despite that IT population, a large mainstream segement exists...as can be evidenced by most comments.

captain numerica wrote:

ewelch wrote:

An FUD filter, please.

I'd like to expand upon this suggestion. Lately, I've felt that many article headlines are purposefully sensational. (This applies to Microsoft, Apple and other articles---happy to supply links to support this.)

I'd rather see more of the 'old fashioned' objective Ars reporting without so much flame bait.

Also, you should win stuff by reading.</milhouse>

/agreeIt feels as if I'm reading a gossip site. Perhaps more objective titles and articles reminiscent of ARS near its inception. And guides, I love how-to's on relevant IT business/home.

I have doubts that the average Ars reader is involved in corporate computing (since it appears to have a more mainstream userbase than when it started).

I doubt your doubts. I'm involved in it, and I often wish there were useful articles about nifty Sharepoint tricks or other things that I wouldn't normally find out otherwise.

I've been reading Ars since 1996-7 IIRC (my forum account dates to '99 but I had a different one prior to that whose credentials and details I don't remember), so maybe I'm not "mainstream" enough.

All of the Apple coverage does get old at times though, and I'm Apple-agnostic (I use a MBP and OS X, but I hate the iPhone & iPad.)

I'd like to see more in-depth things like how-to articles or tips & tricks for performance. Stuff like all of the new "advanced format" drives and how they interact with a WinXP box, or an explanation of why/how to "Align" an SSD for best performance. This is stuff that may get covered at other sites, but they never really get into a good explanation of why/how it actually works, or they may have information that conflicts with one of the other 20 sites...

Corporate-level things would be good to see as well. A showdown of Hyper-V vs. whatever VMWare's current free offering is... I trust the depth of coverage and thoroughness of an Ars review (especially PetwarBeeeeee) over most other sites.

Hey, Captain whatever, perhaps you haven't been following the complete fiascos in the mobile market, which is clearly the future. Yes, MS will continue to make lots of money for the time being, largely on the backs of all those IT clowns who have their heads in the sand, and are trying to protect their own jobs and empires, but the handwriting is on the wall. In 10 years, MS will be a mere shell of its former self.

Of course, there is no money in IT. In the future, all datacenters will be powered by iPhones. Apple will offer a iCloud computing appliance to all the thousands of companies out there who need to get computing work done, but don't want to do it the old stupid way, with PC-based servers. They'll package several thousand iPhones and iPads into a shipping container, bundle it with redundant UPS's and HVAC units, and sell it...they can call it the iPod.

Microsoft's space in the consumer world is shaky, but to say that they're irrelevent because of IT is silly. IBM, Oracle, and many other vendors out there make tens of billions of dollars on purely IT, not consumer. MS is going nowhere.

I think the current level of MS coverage is great. I'm at a fortune 500 company and MS is used a lot here. I still like most of the apple coverage, because that's supported in our corporate phone platform, and I have a Win7/hackintosh box at home that I fiddle with sometimes. I love the gaming coverage because that's what I'd do if I had more free time!

Since I believe I'm in the minority maybe you should just show those articles to people that are logged in. Or perhaps create a filtering system that by default doesn't include those articles but people like me could add the articles to our viewable list.

Perhaps than you can think of. I do find that somewhat surprising judging by article comments I read but I don't have your stats so I yield. In any case corporate computing articles seem a poor fit on Ars IMHO.

I would like to supply a counter humble opinion. I am a corporate IT worker that works with a variety of Microsoft products. While it's not the only reason I come to Ars, corporate computing news is important to me. The strength of Ars to me is that it spans both consumer and corporate computing news as well as commentary on both that is thought provoking. Were it to treat one area stronger than another, it would be the lesser for it (in my opinion).

Basic info on patches are boring, but necessary. I agree that more coverage of WHS and its upcoming v2 (Vail) would be good. It's one of those areas where there really aren't any competing products that really have all the same features. There was one brief piece on Vail(http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2 ... -leaks.ars), but you could do quite a bit more (see http://www.wegotserved.com/whs-vail-preview/, but don't get quite that carried away). You don't need coverage of all the miscellaneous add-ons and such, but some overview coverage of the features, etc. would be good.

Personally though, I would most like to see some more in-depth coverage of some of the internal workings of Windows -- how some of the lower level OS management is done. I find these not particularly relevant to my own work, but interesting nonetheless, the sort of thing that I would be interested in reading several pages of, just to have a better understanding of how things work. It might be good to cover in particular, things that are often misunderstood, such as memory management (not tweaking advice, but just how it works -- pagefile, prefetch, etc.), file system details, maybe dive into some security features, etc?

And of course, continue in-depth coverage of major Windows/Office releases. I haven't seen any articles on Office 2010 yet (just a couple short blurbs about the release date, 32-vs-64-bit, and a leaked preview from more than a year before release). I'm not sure what the major changes are even?

Ken Fisher / Ken is the founder & Editor-in-Chief of Ars Technica. A veteran of the IT industry and a scholar of antiquity, Ken studies the emergence of intellectual property regimes and their effects on culture and innovation.